Board Minutes – May 8, 2008

 

Minutes submitted by Lisa Mastny

 

 

 

County Manager Shawn Nau introduced himself. He said he has been visiting Durango for many years—his father was a professor in Buffalo in the winter and at Arizona State University in the summer. He said he is very interested in sustainability issues.

 

Walt Serfoss introduced himself. He said he has lived in Durango for more than 40 years and is energized about working with the Sustainability Alliance on sustainability issues.

 

Dick complimented Shawn on the new County Compass plan, especially the linkages and systems. He said the crucial question is where we go from here. Shawn said he can take no credit whatsoever for the plan—the three commissioners and Joanne Spina played a critical role and made it all happen. He agreed that the challenge will be implementing it, and noted that there are a bunch of things we will be hearing about in the next few months. He said the County has already kicked it off internally, that things are in motion. He said the external side of things will happen soon.

 

Dick said he is excited about the collaborative nature of the plan. He noted that the liaison with the city council will be critical. He asked Shawn how he foresees that relationship unfolding.

 

Shawn said that both he and City Manager Ron LeBlanc are new to the area and enjoy discussing issues and learning together. He said this provides a common core on where to go from here. He said both the Board of County Commissioners and the City Council are committed to working together, and that there is good cooperation among department heads and others. He said open communication is key and that he and Ron have spend time talking about issues.

 

Dick asked about the status and next steps for the emissions inventory. Shawn said a draft was presented but there were some concerns raised about the methodology, especially with the oil and gas estimates. He said the assessment was as good as could be done in the short time frame and without input from oil and gas interests. He said there was no local data for the baseline, so they had used San Juan County as a baseline. He said the County will move forward with releasing the inventory soon, though probably minus that chapter. He said the County will then try to establish a baseline and move forward from there. He said the County hopes to improve the methodology over time, since it is problematic to move forward without appropriate data. He said that, if anything, the San Juan industry performance was worse than in La Plata County, so the industry shouldn’t have had a problem with using it.

 

Kim asked whether there is a deadline for doing this, since 4CORE now has the mandate to take this on. Shawn said he hopes to try to get industry involved. He said they want to be involved because they want a chance to prove that they’re doing better than the inventory says.

 

Dick said he wrote letter to Joelle Riddle suggesting that perhaps the new County oil and gas regulations include an agreement with industry to cooperate in providing data. Shawn replied that if you put such a stipulation in the regulations, then the amount of cooperation would probably be less than if the County could get a voluntary agreement. He said that maybe down the line the County may have to use more regulation, but for now they will try to get compliance voluntarily. He said that tonight there is a planning commission meeting on oil and gas, and this won’t be the last time to talk about this. He said the next meeting is on May 22.

 

Rebecca explained that the Sustainability Alliance has a variety of different committees and that we would like to interface with the County, since we are very impressed with the new Compass plan. She said we would be interested in finding out what kinds of initiatives La Plata County is planning, and how we can help implement these and exchange information, etc. Shawn replied that this is part of why Walt is here at the meeting. He said the County doesn’t have a monopoly on good ideas, and is happy to steal from other ideas and jurisdictions. He said he is less interested in telling us what the County wants to do, than in hearing from us what we want to do. He noted that the Maricopa Sustainability Office has gone through multiple versions and themes, such as land use, recycling, etc. He said these efforts should be a response to what the community wants, rather than dictates of the County.

 

Rebecca noted that maybe we need to set up time to have conversation with Walt. Walt said he sees the benefit of joining groups, coming to meetings, and giving updates, to see what the County can do to cooperate. Werner said that we’ve looked at where there are needs in the community, and that we would be interested in learning where there are needs for the County. Shawn said the needs are everywhere. He noted that there are small groups of 4 to 5 people internally working on issues such as energy conservation, etc, but that externally the County needs to rely on cooperation with outside entities. He said Walt is only one guy, and that they don’t have a huge staff, so they need to rely on coalitions.

 

Werner noted that the City hasn’t yet developed a greater vision. Shawn replied that the County really hasn’t either—the new plan is a compass, but the County still needs to develop a longer-range vision, and to get it done. Werner said that there is a need to build a social structure, and to learn how the Sustainability Alliance can contribute to that. He said there may be a need for a sustainability summit.

 

Shawn said the County doesn’t want to duplicate efforts— they want to work with existing groups to help with what they’re doing. He said they recognize that there already are resources out there, so we should work together on how to implement County strategies in concert with others’ strategies. He noted that at the April 17 Compass meeting, there was checklist, asking “how does your strategic plan integrate with ours?” He said this would be a great place to start when we sit down with Walt. He said the main goal is to ensure we’re working together well.

 

Dick suggested having Walt be the next invited guest, to come to our June 12 meeting. Rebecca said it would be great to have Walt come to as many meetings as possible. Walt said he was planning to, and that he sees us as a resource. He wants to help, and to encourage participation by the County. He said he is really positive about what we can come out with.

 

Dick said the Board should revisit some ground rules. He said Werner had some thoughts about better organizing the discussion, such as by having a timekeeper who is not the chair. He said Werner has volunteered to do this. He said Werner’s other suggestion was about organizing comments—that Board members should think about their contributions in order of priority. They should put statements before questions, and questions before mere comments, with an eye toward “Is this really moving the conversation forward?”

 

Dick said there is also an urgent issue to discuss: Rebecca had learned that if we want to seek public service support from the County, we might want to submit a proposal by June. Walt added that typically, this is a public service piece, but the budget isn’t really final until October. But he said there is a deadline.

 

Dick said it is not too early for us to begin a conversation about what we think we would like to ask for, as an organization. He said that last year there was $2 million available for requests in the County budget, though there were also many applicants. He said he had heard informally that requests would be viewed through the lens of a comprehensive plan, and that groups doing similar things would have to combine efforts. He said we should try to get ideas on the table and figure out how we proceed from there—whether to hold a special board meeting, to delegate action to a specific committee, etc.

 

Dick’s shared several ideas. He noted that a huge issue for us is that we’re a totally volunteer organization, and that we need operating funds. He asked whether we would wish, philosophically, to get some of that money from the government, especially given that we also play an advocacy role. He said that one option could be to approach the County as a paid partner. He noted that Marcus had said that the SLED committee was considering asking for money to support the coupon book. He said another option could be to fund the multiplier study, as an important piece in supporting the local economy. He said he could also imagine us engaging in some kind of contract to do sustainability education and outreach.

 

Lisa said we could get more funding for website maintenance, updating, etc. Marcus suggested the idea of a community resource guide, for which we could ask for a match from the county. Rebecca said she likes the idea of the multiplier effect study, and said that if the study found that more money is being spent on local vs. non-local businesses, this information could be very useful. Werner said this would also get the most bang for the buck—if we know there is a lot of leakage out of the community, then we can try to figure out where this can be fixed, with the least expenditure.

 

Kim asked whether someone is doing this study. Tim said there is a website in the UK that has done the methodology for a number of towns to do this study. The towns just fill in the data, and a business can either give dollar amounts of flows or percentages. He said the local study would look down three levels of exchange, to explore how the money flows through that particular business. He said it may make sense to go through some CPA firms to simplify the process—i.e., maybe businesses could give permission to accountants to give us the information. He said the process would require people to go talk to the businesses, which would initially be grocers like Nature’s Oasis, Durango Natural Foods, and Sunnyside Meats.

 

Werner said that last year the Sustainability Alliance attempted to do a sustainability proposal, which would include a baseline study and best practice research, and provide it to the City and County. He said there is still an opportunity to provide policymakers with information on sustainability, now and in the future. He raised the idea of a systems workshop, and said that Bob Doppolt, a leading thinker on this, is Claire Bradshaw’s professor. He said maybe we could get him to come present on “overcoming the 10 sustainability blunders.” We could organize a workshop for the city, county, and surrounding countries. He said another possible presenter is Michael Kingsley at the Rocky Mountain Institute.

 

Dick said that we are missing someone from the Farm to School initiative to give their thoughts, requests, and ideas. He said this will be ongoing progress—that we’re probably not looking at a June proposal, but need to get ball rolling.

 

Tim said that there is a multiplier number for Durango and the surrounding areas, which comes from state demographers office, based on averages across the nation. He said that what’s lacking is data specific to our situation, and that we want to see how close or far off these numbers are. He said he has talked with Region 9, Fort Lewis College, and others and found that it would be expensive to do a real study, so we are looking at an alternative model. He noted that the Business Improvement District has funded a study to assess the leakage out of downtown, which will likely be available in the fall.

 

Chris Paulson said that the disputed parcel of land by Riverview is now available. She said that she and others have pulled together sustainability plan for a farm-to-school plot on the property. But she added that “everybody has their eyes out for it.” She said she is planning some tours for the property on May 17, the day after the sale bid expires. Walt asked what the process would be to move forward with the sustainability plan—in other words, how would the Board of County Commissioners go about figuring out who is out there, how they are trying to get the property used, etc? He said he would work with the County administration folks, and with Shawn, to see how he wants to address the issue.

 

Dick said the administrative question for the Sustainability Alliance is how to move forward with a funding proposal to the County, since it overlaps multiple committees. He said it might make sense to have an ad-hoc committee to address this, to try to move forward. Rebecca said we would need to prioritize tasks, learn what other organizations are doing, then maybe speak with the County to see how they evaluate the proposals. She said we need to brainstorm outselves, then speak with the County and City to hear their input. She said she would be happy to check with Wally White again but has the sense that if we were smart, we would have our proposal in by June/July.

 

Tim said it would also be useful to identify things that the County and City have already funded, and that we explicitly supported—such as 4CORE, the emissions inventory, the power purchase agreement for solar panels, and LEED certification for the library and human services buildings. He said that the recognition coming from this group, whether we get funding or not, would be valuable for the future.

 

Dick, Rebecca, and Werner volunteered to participate in the ad-hoc committee. Dick said he may knock on other doors as well.

 

Dick said the Committee is getting back on track but still has not put together actual goals for the year. He said they will move their meeting up to May 19–20 to specifically address this. He said one leading issue is the new LPEA board seats opening up and the need to try to get people in.

 

Tim, as the Sustainability Alliance’s representative to the 4CORE board, said that new Executive Director Aileen Tracy will begin May 19. He said they had 36 applications and 3 finalists. He said the 4CORE Board has expanded from 5 people to include Sue Morris (Three Springs) and Chad Tidwell (BP). He said the Board will support the ED to get the organization up and running this year, and to finalize the structure. He said the Sustainability Alliance will be called upon to help with providing ongoing maintenance of the emissions inventory and to develop an action plan for the County. He said this will hopefully be a highly public participatory process, bringing lots of people to the table. He said we should try to get Aileen to meet with the Sustainability Alliance as soon as possible.

 

Denise said she thought the emissions inventory was regional, and that 4CORE was a regional organization—but is the main focus on La Plata County? Tim said the group has the intention and structure to be regional, but it is presently funded by the County, City of Durango, LPEA, etc. He said 4CORE received County funding mainly because it would be the main agency to take on the emissions inventory. He said the goal is to eventually take on and involve the wider region. He noted that Ignacio wants to do a 1 megawatt solar farm, and that Pat Senecal, Riley Neugebauer, and Tim had presented the possibility of a power purchase agreement that the County might buy into. He said this would facilitate the project getting built.

 

 

Marcus provided an update on LOCAL and said the group now has 19 founding members pledged and $14,000 in the bank. He said they are moving to hire someone as Project Manager for coupon book, and have gotten a few calls so far. He said applications are due May 19 and that they are shooting for a start date of June 1, though this is flexible.

 

He said they are in the process of coming up with an RFP for a design firm to do the design elements for the book. He said they had obtained software from One Tribe Creative to create the design template that would be customized for the local coupon book. He said they are looking at potentially contracting with two local people to meet with the Steering Committee. They are also discussing what educational content should be in the book.

 

Marcus said the La Plata Loyalty group is gearing up to start their “anti-leakage” campaign in June. He said they had talked about a potential joint press release, a news story to show how both groups are working on the same issues and not competing with each other.

 

Mary Alice asked what the coupon book covers. Marcus said it is an effort that communities undertake to channel purchases to locally owned independent businesses. He said it is a way to generate money to support LOCAL.

 

Dick asked what the status of LOCAL is organization-wise. Marcus said they have started looking at different forms of organizations—nonprofit or for-profit, etc. He said they need to get these discussions going early, but it will probably not happen until the coupon book is done. Tim said they are trying to set up a vehicle for fundraising before setting up the organization.

 

 

Werner said the next networking event was originally going to focus on developing a resource guide and on community mapping. He said that we don’t want to duplicate the resource guide of DANPO and the Chamber, however. He said the committee had narrowed it down to three topics, but that we need stakeholders from the community present to make it a valid effort.

 

He said he had talked with Laurie and Michelle about green and sustainable building, but that we can’t get it together in two weeks. Marcus said he hasn’t talked with Laura yet about a possible focus on a living wage. He said the question is whether we can get enough key players at the meeting to make it productive. He said we may need to wait until we can. Werner said that if we can’t, we should call off the event and push it back to the fall.

 

Werner said his recommendation would be to hold an event on wages and employment. He said we would need to figure out what the “carrots” would be for people to come. He said the 2030 challenge would be a carrot for the green business topic, and that for wages and employment, the carrot would be a living wage, local dollars, computerized services/needs matching. He said we need to decide whether to hold the event based on this topic only.

 

Rebecca said we should use the opportunity to talk to other nonprofits about who might want to work with us with regard to the County Compass plan—or we should just cancel it. She said right now it seems like our hearts aren’t really into it, and it wouldn’t be in the interest of our credibility. Werner agreed that the big challenge is doing it in two weeks. Laurie said that with school ending and people leaving town, there is not enough time to pull it off and do it justice.

 

Marcus said the meetings have been valuable—we have a better sense of how to get people to network. He said if we are now down to only one topic, he would recommend holding off. He said we should continue to pursue the concept of a networking event, but when we have more time.

 

Laurie said she went to a recent Twin Buttes presentation, and that David Johnston, who wrote Green Remodeling, is developing the sustainability guidelines for the project. She said he will be around town and would be a great speaker. She said Ed Mazria in Santa Fe, with the 2030 Challenge, is also a great speaker, though his fee is $10,000. She said we have a lot of resources on green building in town and would love to work on this, but it can’t happen in two weeks.

 

Werner said he would contact the five people who have RSVPed and explain the reasoning for not holding the event. Lisa said she would explain this in newsletter as well. Marcus suggested explaining that key people we wanted were unavailable, so we needed to come up with another date.

 

Laurie said there appears to be some confusion about the distinction between the networking event and Green Drinks at Carver’s. She said that maybe calling it a networking event is confusing. Dick suggested that we hold Green Drinks this month as planned. Rebecca said a fundraising idea could be to have a green umbrella in the drinks.

 

Werner said the E&O Committee would really like to launch a movie series, and that Paul Sheldon would take charge of it. He said there is a concern about adding too many venues and events when there is so much going on already. He asked: Who is the audience? What’s the best way to not have too much duplication? Rebecca said the audience would be whoever we inform.

 

Laurie said that the EcoHome Center’s Eco-Eves have been so successful that they will likely keep doing it, but make SASCO the recipient of proceeds. She said last year the funds went to SWCRES, which got a $600 check. She said she had fun doing it—it was easy, and she was able to connect with the filmmakers.

 

Laurie said that from a publicity and promotions perspective, it would be better to host this at the Abbey. Werner said this was his first reaction, but at the committee meeting there was concern it might not appeal to people with families and kids. He said the Abbey also costs $400. He said Paul had proposed getting sponsored. Most Board members said they thought the Abbey was a good location.

 

Dick said we still have an issue about scheduling. He said we should probably have Green Drinks be Green Drinks, and be mindful about scheduling other events. He said we should have regularly scheduled outreach events. Denise said SOS has been really effective with this. She said the organization has two arms—public education and outreach, and policy. She said the Sustainability Alliance has been really effective in policy stuff, unlike SOS, but that SOS has been very effective in public education and outreach. She said they host a once-a-month themed event for the public—this month is a movie on water, next month will be a different theme, and a speaker. She said there could be diversity, with something different every months, and it could be regional, state, or local.

 

Laurie said it is more helpful to have a signature event, rather than 20 events every year that tax the volunteer power and don’t make money. She said we have to consider why are we having the event, and what is it hoping to achieve. She said Green Drinks is a great way to network. She said if a movie is an educational tool, then should we be asking people to pay every month? Or, should we create an event that is just for fundraising, which allows us to do more for free in the community.

 

Dick said the critical question is where we get our leverage—i.e., what are the choices that will give us the most leverage? He said the issue now is how to come to resolution about this. He said Laurie’s alternative is a special event that would be a fundraiser.

 

Laurie said she did an Eco-Eve movie event last August. When you look at successful organizations in town, they all have a signature event: Who’s Your Daddy, Durango Arts Festival, etc. But she said it takes a huge amount of volunteer power. Lisa said we need to have Carol included in this discussion.

 

Dick said this raises a critical issue about sustaining the organization and getting staff. She said we could possibly get individual funding, or hold a signature event. Denise suggested that we maybe combine E&O with marketing and fundraising? Laurie said she doesn’t see this as useful. Lisa said it might make more sense to separate marketing and fundraising. Dick said he would like to see stepped up involvement in this—maybe Laura and Laurie would be interested in taking it on?

 

Werner said the E&O committee is also working on the issue of impact—i.e., how do we optimize our impact, how to have the greatest impact within the mission, given the time and resources we have.

 

 

Lisa gave a website update. She said that Steve would be working on the background development and that she would work on content, pulling the elements together. She said the idea would be to create a prototype site, get feedback, and then go live once the kinks are worked out. She said that for the logo, Ken Carmichael has developed something and wants to share it, so she will coordinate a meeting time.

 

Lisa said we want to ultimately decide who would chair the Marketing and Fundraising committee. She said she has been doing it ad hoc, but that it would be nice to reach an agreement on this.

 

 

Dick said the County is clearly exercising policy leadership but that the City is further behind. He said we need to talk to the City Councilors, Ron LeBlanc, Greg Hoch, and others to see where they think they are. He said the city’s Green Team report a few months ago was a long list of good things they’ve done, put not a plan to put them all together. He said the City hasn’t put energy yet into seeing how they’re going to move in this direction. He said Greg has noted that “you have directed us to do XYZ, which is what we’ve been doing, which is why we haven’t been doing these other things...”

 

Dick said we should make an offer to the city, asking “how can we help you move forward with this?” He said there were also questions about possibly seeking city funding. He said the political will is there, the will of the staff is there, but the City hasn’t gotten its collective effort together.

 

Lisa asked what the policy committee’s mandate is. Dick said the priority is to orient local decision-making processes toward a larger goal. He said the County is going to review its entire budget in light of its strategic plan, and that we’d like to see the city do that with the Comp Plan. He said it remains unclear what to push when, and how.

 

Werner asked whether the committee has talked to Joe Colgan, who was going to do that kind of streamlining with the city budget. Dick said he believed the budget advisory committee was planning to tackle this. He said the County was doing it department by department, asking: how are you aligned with this plan?

 

 

Dick said that the timekeeping for the meeting has worked well. Werner said he has two suggestions: (1) Put the agenda on the whiteboard, and (2) pay attention to what your contribution to the meeting is: Is it a question or comment (hearing oneself speak) or making a real point. He said this awareness helps to structure meetings and provide intent.

 

Rebecca said we had talked once about structuring meetings to set aside time for others who have come and have something to say. She said we need space for community sharing.

 

Chris McCracken introduced himself and said he is a business broker who is getting out of regular businesses and into sustainable businesses. He said he saw this model in Portland, and wants to go after sustainable businesses and bring them here. Lisa noted that the new business park proposal could be made much more sustainable, and that Erick Aune is frustrated about how it’s unfolding.

 

Chris Paulson said her concern is that while the Sustainability Alliance and other groups are doing a great job, what you see happening at the policy level is on a separate track—it’s all business as usual. She gave the example of Florida Road, saying they just took the plan from 2000 and revived it. She said they didn’t really build in any of the suggestions, and this means that community groups have to play the role of villain rather than being part of the process.

 

Dick said that Erick had made the observation that the mode of operation at the County government has been focused on procedure—i.e., how do we process XYZ request? He said the idea of the Compass is not how to be reactive, but how to proactively guide development. He said we are potentially at the cusp of a huge changeover.

 

Mary Alice said it is so exciting to have lots of things rolling, and that she wants to be a part of this.